HOUSTON, June 2, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) announced that at its annual shareholder meeting today, Donald R. Campbell, Janiece M. Longoria and Peter S. Wareing, were elected to the company's board of directors effective June 2, 2005. Also re-elected to the board were O. Holcombe Crosswell and Thomas F. Madison.

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Campbell, 65, is a private investor who formerly served as chief financial officer and as a director of Sanders Morris Harris Group, Inc., a regional investment banking firm. He was also vice chairman of the board and chief financial officer of Pinnacle Global Group and served as a director of CenterPoint Energy's former subsidiary, Texas Genco Holdings, Inc.

Longoria, 52, is a partner in the Houston law firm of Ogden, Gibson, White, Broocks & Longoria, L.L.P., with extensive experience in commercial and securities-related litigation and regulatory matters. She has served as a commissioner of the Port of Houston Authority since 2002 and previously was treasurer and a director of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation. Prior to entering private law practice, she served as presiding judge of Municipal Court No. 6 in Houston and as an assistant district attorney with the Harris County District Attorney's office.

Wareing, 53, is a co-founder and partner in the private equity firm Wareing, Athon & Company. He is chairman of the board of Gulf Coast Pre- Stress, Ltd. in Pass Christian, Miss., and of Union Ice Company, Ltd., in Los Angeles, Calif. He is also vice chairman of the board of Nordic Cold Storage, LLC in Atlanta, Ga., an officer and director of several privately owned family entities and a member of the Houston region advisory board of JP Morgan Chase Bank. He has been a trustee of Houston's Texas Children's Hospital for the past 20 years.

Campbell, Longoria and Wareing join current board members Milton Carroll (chairman), John T. Cater, Derrill Cody, O. Holcombe Crosswell, Thomas F. Madison, David M. McClanahan, Robert T. O'Connell and Michael E. Shannon.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a domestic energy delivery company that includes electric transmission & distribution, natural gas distribution and sales, and interstate pipeline and gathering operations. The company serves nearly five million metered customers primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Assets total over $17 billion. With more than 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 130 years. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.CenterPointEnergy.com .

SOURCE CenterPoint Energy, Inc.

media, Leticia Lowe, +1-713-207-7702, or investors, Marianne Paulsen,
+1-713-207-6500, both of CenterPoint Energy, Inc.

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